CVRI Imaging Core Director; CVS401 Course Co-Director; CVRI Seminar Series Co-Director; UR Translation Club Co-Director
Liuqing Yang, Ph.D.
Aleksandr Ivanov, Ph.D.
Lindsey Wainwright, Ph.D. candidate (3rd year)
Jack Lawrence Schwarts, Ph.D. candidate (2nd year)
Belal Chowdhury, Ph.D. candidate (2nd year)
Kevin Lei Pan, Ph.D. candidate (rotation student; 1st year)
Yui Kawakami (B.S.): Lab Technician (4/2024-present)
Undergraduate Student (University of Rochester, Biochemistry, 9/2020-5/2024)
Research Interest: Animal genetics, cardiovascular disease, and skeletal muscle disorder; mitochondrial transmembrane protein function and mechanism; Neuron biology and brain diseases
Research Specialist:
Jiali He (M.S.): Research Specialist (6/2024-present)
MS Student (University of Syracuse, Neuron Science, 10/2020-5/2024; BS from Wuhan University in China)
Research Interest: Animal genetics and cardiovascular disease; Organ fibrosis; human mutations of RNA-binding protein in heart and brain diseases; Neurobiology and brain diseases
Undergraduate Research Assistant:
Alexander Chen (B.S. candidate of Biological Sciences in UR):
Research Assistant (11/2024-present)
Research Interest: Human heart surgery; Animal genetics and surgery; Translation factor in cardiomyocyte biology; Aim to become a cardiac surgeon
Joseph DeTraglia (B.S. candidate of Molecular Genetics in UR):
Research Intern (1/2025-present)
Research Interest: Human cardiology and clinical research; Animal genetics and heart disease; Translation factor in cardiac fibroblast biology; Aim to become a cardiologist
Isha Korgaonkar (4+4 B.S./M.D. candidate in UR; Rochester Early Medical Scholar):
Research Intern (2/2025-present)
Research Interest: Human disease, clinical and translational research, and patient care; Animal genetics and heart disease; RNA therapeutics; Aims to become a physician doctor
Jaimie Lim (B.S. candidate in UR):
Research Intern (3/2025-present)
Research Interest: Human disease, clinical and translational research, and patient care; Animal genetics; Aims to become a physician doctor
Shen Zhou (Ph.D. of Genomics & Genetics Program and MS of Data Science in UR; currently working in Sanofi in the Boston area):
Bioinformatician collaborator (5/2025-present)
Research Interest: Machine learning & Deep learning; computational biology; process analytical technology and Convolution Neural Networks (Internship for Biogen)
Feng is working as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Billy Jin Li's lab at Stanford University, studying ADAR-mediated RNA editing in auto-immune diseases, diabetes, and cardiovascular disorders. Feng got his BS from Wuhan University.
Omar is working as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Kevin Weeks's lab at University of North Carolina, developing novel chemical compound for labeling RNA structural elements for establishing new RNA-probing biotechnology and RNA therapeutics. Omar got his BS from Kuwait University.
Jared Hollinger: B.S.
Lab Manager/Technician III (5/2021-4/2024)
Research Interest: Protein expression, purification, biochemical characterization, and translational regulation of gene expression in cancer biology.
Jared received offers from OSU and SUNY Upstate graduate school Ph.D. programs and will start his Ph.D. thesis research at OSU after the summer of 2024.
Matt moved to the clinical department, working with pediatrics cardiologists for patient care for kids with congenital heart disease.
Current Lab Members
Postdoctoral fellows:
Aleksandr Ivanov
Liuqing Yang
Uday Baliga
Debojyoti Das
Graduate students:
Kevin Lei Pan
Belal Chowdhury
Jack Lawrence Schwartz
Lindsey Wainwright
Lab Technicians:
Yui Kawakami
Research Specialists:
Jiali He
Undergraduate intern assistants:
Alexander Chen
Joseph DeTraglia
Isha Korgaonkar
Jaimie Lim
Lab Alumni
Research Assistant Professor:
Jiangbin Wu
Staff Scientist:
Kadiam Chinna Venkata Subbaiah
Postdoctoral fellows:
Madhuparna Pandit
EngSoon Khor
Kadiam Chinna Venkata Subbaiah
Jiangbin Wu
Graduate students:
Feng Jiang
Omar Hedaya
Lab Technicians:
Jared Hollinger
Matthew Auguste
Virginia Aswad
Jordan Rhen
Rotation PhD students:
Yuxi Zhu (2025; Pathology PhD candidate, Pathology lab, URMC)
Weijia Zhang (2025; BMB PhD candidate, Brian Altman's lab, URMC)
Kevin Lei Pan (2025; Biology PhD candidate, Peng Yao's lab, UR River Campus)
Mert Koka (2022; BMB PhD candidate, Mitchell O'Connell's lab, URMC)
Thomas Ossevoort (2022; BMB PhD candidate, Dmitri Ermolenko's lab, URMC)
Belal Chowdhury (2024; BMB PhD candidate, Lynne Maquat's lab during 6/1/2024-3/31/2025, URMC)
Anika Varma (2024; MD/PhD candidate, John Lueck's lab, URMC)
Feng Jiang BMB2018, Omar Hedaya BMB2018, Lindsey Wainwright BMB2023, Jack Schwartz BMB2024, Kevin Lei Pan Biology2025 (join Peng Yao's lab as graduate students)
Undergraduate Research Assistants:
Yui Kawakami (UR 2025)
Matthew Auguste (UR 2024)
Emily Bonnano (UR 2024)
Jordan Pappas (UR 2018)